Warren Buffett hones rock-star status
— -- The world's richest man is having an E.F. Hutton moment.
Warren Buffett, dubbed the Oracle of Omaha by Wall Street, is making his voice heard these days.
The billionaire investor is out talking to cable TV anchors. To magazines. To shareholders. To Congress. To foreign investors. To a former Wall Street analyst who is writing a book about him.
He's generating newsy sound bites at press conferences. On airplanes. In impromptu TV interviews outside his home. Even in faraway places such as China, South Korea and major cities in the euro zone, where he just got back from a "European Tour."
He's even popped up in a CNBC documentary, The Billionaire Next Door: All Access, which delves into all things Buffett. Not to mention a recent guest appearance on the daytime soap opera All My Children.
And, as in the unforgettable E.F. Hutton TV ad, people are listening to what Buffett has to say.
Indeed, with the financial world in turmoil, Buffett mania is in full swing. "He's the rock star of our industry," says Edward Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research. "If there was a rating agency for investment gurus, Buffett would be rated triple A."
So what is Buffett talking about? Pretty much everything. His investing secrets (don't buy what you don't understand). The election (Obama is his choice). The economy (the U.S. is in recession). Interest rates (no need for more cuts). Deals (he's always on the prowl). The housing slump (more pain ahead). The Bear Stearns bailout (it averted a financial meltdown). The stimulus package (use the cash to pay down debt). The credit crisis (the effects are far from over). The dollar (its value will fall more). Succession plans at his holding company Berkshire Hathaway (there's a short list of candidates). Taxes (the rich should pay more).
But unlike rock icons such as Bono and Mick Jagger, the maestro of the financial world has had a history of keeping a low profile. "Going back five or 10 years, seeing an interview with Buffett on TV or in the newspaper was very unusual," says Vahan Janjigian, author of Even Buffett Isn't Perfect: What You Can — and Can't — Learn from the World's Greatest Investor. "Now he seems to be in the media all the time."
Buffett in the past has tended to share his thoughts only on specific occasions, such as his annual shareholder meeting, known as the Woodstock of Capitalism; his folksy letter to shareholders, which is to annual reports what Garrison Keillor's The News from Lake Wobegon is to live radio; or news conferences to announce big deals or jaw-dropping Buffett-esque stories such as two years ago when he told the world he will give away the bulk of his wealth — estimated at $62 billion by Forbes— to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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